A GOVERNMENT scheme has ploughed more than £31.5m into North-East schools, with an extra £8.9m earmarked for this year, a report reveals.

The report on Excellence in Cities, aimed at improving education in UK cities, highlights its positive impact on schools on Tyneside and Wearside.

They have been at the forefront of the programme for the past three years, with secondary school pupils gaining access to learning mentors, learning support units, and city learning centres.

Youngsters are also benefiting from programmes for gifted and talented pupils, and from being taught in a beacon school, a specialist school or a school within an Excellence in Cities action zone.

The Excellence in Cities annual report highlights the work of the learning support unit at Benfield School, in Newcastle.

It says: "Nick Weaver, the unit manager, comes from a background of working with emotionally and behaviourally-disturbed children, and has been running the learning support unit with his assistant, Judith Bell, for a year.

"They handle a steady stream of referrals in a room that has a calm, well-organised and purposeful learning atmosphere.

"This caring atmosphere builds confidence, so pupils can be re-engaged in the main school."

Education Minister Estelle Morris said: "Tyneside's schools have been at the forefront of our mission to raise standards of education in our cities. Through a substantial programme of investment - the equivalent of more than £270 per pupil - we are providing urban schools with enough additional resources to really make a difference."

The report can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ excellence/publications